Anaheim Ducks star Corey Perry is sneaky-dirty like Mark Messier used to be in his Edmonton Oilers days

– There’s plenty of vitriol from aggrieved Minnesota Wild fans, upset at Corey Perry’s elbow on rookie Jason Zucker when I dared to tweet Perry’s “sneaky-dirty” play was what made him special to other NHL general managers around the league, outside of his obvious talent. Perry isn’t as overt as Mark Messier was — remember The Moose drilling an unsuspecting Jamie Macoun in the face with a punch off a faceoff in the Battle of Alberta days — but Perry is no angel. I just wish players would stop saying, ‘I didn’t mean to hurt him’ when it’s they did. Perry did mean to clean out Zucker’s tonsils.

– I can’t imagine the Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League are overjoyed to draw the Kootenay Ice in the first playoff round, and not just because it’s a long bus ride there and back to Cranbrook, B.C., when Medicine Hat would have been much better geographically. The rebuilding Ice were 3-3 against the Oil Kings this season, winning all three in their barn. All six games were close. Very good coaching job in Kootenay by Ryan McGill, who replaced Kris Knoblauch. “As a team, they don’t go away,” said one amateur scout.

– Former Edmonton Oilers first-round draft pick Riley Nash, who had absolutely no interest in signing with them while at Cornell University and was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes for a second-round draft pick (Martin Marincin), has surprised people by putting up points for the Hurricanes after an undistinguished 2-½ AHL years in Charlotte. He’s their No. 3 centre behind the Staals, Eric and Jordan. ”It’s today’s NHL … some jump in right away and others take a long time. From a talent standpoint, it was always high-end. He’s got very good hockey sense and good hands,” said Kevin Prendergast, the former Oilers head scout. “When we drafted him he wasn’t sure if he was going to Cornell or Colorado College, or maybe Denver and wound up at Cornell with his brother, but only played like 35 games a year. We knew it would take longer.”

– Prevailing opinion on Oil Kings backup goalie Tristan Jarry is he’ll be gone in the first 40 picks at the June draft. “He’ll be an early second-round draft choice,” one highly-connected amateur scout said. And yes, the Oilers would take him. They don’t have a deep cupboard of prospect goalies. The jury’s out on Olivier Roy. Tyler Bunz is in the ECHL for his first pro season (16-16-4, 3.32 goals-against average, .886 save percentage).

– Because of the Atlanta Thrashers relocating to Winnipeg, then the lockout, Calgary, Detroit, Vancouver and Chicago have yet to play at the MTS Centre, home of the Jets, and won’t until next season. That’s two Canadian teams and two Original Six teams who have yet to make an appearance in Winnipeg.

– Looks like the outdoor Heritage Classic games will be back on, starting next season for the Canadian clubs. Vancouver will get one in 2014 and the Jets are hoping for one in 2015 at Winnipeg’s new football stadium.

– The New Jersey Devils led the NHL with 15 short-handed last season and they’re No. 1 again this season with eight. Credit assistant coach Dave Barr for looking after their penalty kill, but the Devils also put their best guys on the penalty kill. Not every team does that these days. Ilya Kovalchuk (four short-handed goals) and Adam Henrique (two) are very dangerous. “I enjoy stripping the puck and going in on a breakaway,” Henrique said. The Oilers hold the NHL record of 36, set in 1983-84. Gretzky had 12 shorties that year.

– The Buffalo Sabres are taking some grief for now sending first-round centre Mikhail Grigorenko back to the QMJHL Quebec Remparts and coach Patrick Roy after burning a year of his entry-level salary by keeping him past five games. But people in Buffalo say it was coy move so the 18-year-old didn’t eat up a year of his seven-years to unrestricted free-agent status. He’d played 22 games. If he played a 23rd, it counted as a year for his UFA time.

– Under stats that a player hopes go away: Sharks’ winger Ryane Clowe has zero goals in 59 shots. Jason Chimera got off the schneid Sunday against Buffalo; he had 58 shots. Clowe hurt his shoulder against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.

– The Sharks aren’t sure what to do with Martin Havlat, who has done little (six points). Is he a possible get-out-of-jail buyout with two years left at $5 million after this season? Possible.

– A well-respected, longtime NHL executive, raising his eyebrows at Anaheim giving centre/captain Ryan Getzlaf a whopping $8.25 million a year in a new eight-year deal: “That’s almost as much as Crosby’s getting (on average).” Still not sure why Perry hasn’t just signed the identical $66-million contract. They are tied at the hip, aren’t they? Perry, I hear, goes home to Ontario every year so not married to California like Getzlaf is.

– Cagey move by the Ducks to trade for centre Dave Steckel, a career 58.5 per cent faceoff guy. Slow feet, maybe, but great hands in the faceoff circle and valuable on defensive-zone draws. Ducks head coach Bruce Boudreau, who had Steckel in Washington, obviously had a large say in this decision. The Ducks are fourth worst on faceoffs (46.9 per cent). The Devils, the Sabres and the Oilers are 28th, 29th and 30th on draws. It hasn’t hurt Anaheim or the Devils in the standings.

– The world under-18 hockey championship — the No. 1 scouting tournament for the NHL draft — is test-driving the two Sochi Olympic rinks in April for the 10-day junior tournament. Canada doesn’t have a head coach yet, but because the tournament has been pushed back a week, they’ll have a deeper team. Most of the players will come from teams eliminated in the first round of the major-junior playoffs, and they can add four or five more kids from teams eliminated after five games of a second playoff round. “Kootenay’s playing Edmonton, and we’ll get either Sam Reinhart or Curtis Lazar,” said Prendergast, who heads up Hockey Canada’s scouting program. “Lazar has flown under the radar playing on such a good Edmonton team, but when you look at his stat — I don’t know if he’ll be a first-line NHL player, but he’ll certainly be a second-liner because he knows both ends of the ice.”

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